Living La Vida Peligroso
by Aquatic-Idealist
Summary: The Life and Times of the Okazaki's Tomoya and Kyou, as told by Youhei Sunohara.
1. Living La Vida Peligroso

Living La Vida Peligroso

_I entered the classroom, naturally late, when I saw something quite interesting._

"_You guys really are like that, aren't you?" I smirked at my classmates Kyou and Tomoya._

"_Huh?" Tomoya blinked._

"_Like what?" Kyou looked confused as well._

_There was a letter between them. Seeing as they were both so calm, it had to be a love letter. 'Sides, they had been around each other for quite a while, and I even saw Kyou once hand him a lunchbox, something a girl wouldn't do unless she was really dating a guy._

_Tomoya glanced at the space between him and Kyou, and immediately gasped._

"_Y-You've got it all wrong!" He gasped._

"_This is a... Um.. Well... Yeah, it's just an ordinary love letter." Kyou nodded slightly, blushing a bit as well. I have to admit, for once, she actually looked cute. Which was rare considering the fact that she enjoyed torturing me._

_Damn, was I good! I could barely keep myself from laughing._

"_Hey..." Tomoya glanced at her._

"_Huh?" Kyou glanced back._

"_Don't just stay silent after that!" He growled._

"_Tomoya, why didn't you tell me about this? I thought we were friends... How could you keep something this important from me?" I sighed._

"_Sunohara, you..." Tomoya seemed speechless._

_"Hahaha, it's okay. We're friends, and there are things that are hard to say, aren't there?" I chuckled._

"_'Sides, I'd be a pansy if I actually minded something like this." I added, as an afterthought._

_"No, that's not it... you think we're friends...?" Tomoya sneered._

_It's those kinds of moments where I wish I wasn't such a nice guy..._

_"I'm pretty sure you were supposed to be nothing but his slave..." Kyou added with her own trademark sneer._

_"Or maybe my underling who does what I want." Tomoya laughed._

"_You two are a damn perfect match for each other!" I yelled, bolting out of the room._

So that's that. Well, now that we've got the basics covered, let me introduce myself. I'm Sunohara Youhei, the hottest guy you'll find on this shore of Japan. But, the sad thing is that my best friend, Okazaki Tomoya, fell in love with a really, really vicious and abusive girl. Kyou might look very pretty, and she might be nice once in a blue moon, but she's still as bitchy as a chick can get.

But no matter how I tried to talk some sense into Tomoya, he insisted on staying with her.

And now, it's come to this...

* * *

"Look guys, this is **my** dorm room. It's not a lounge, and I haven't been paid for letting you rent the place, so I think you should find another place to hang out." I sighed as I looked down on both of them, sprawled across the carpet. It's a good thing they haven't noticed those green and brown stains yet.

"Youhei, since when did you have the authority to tell us what we should do?" Kyou glared at me with a raised eyebrow.

I swear, I wanted to bolt out of the room when I saw that look in her eyes. Kyou... She is a demon, that girl.

"And shouldn't you be happy that a girl would be willing to put up with _your _stench in _your_ room?" Tomoya laughed.

"Yeah, but that's because she's with _you_!" I growled back.

"How thankless are you, weed?" Kyou sighed.

"That's it! Both of you, get out of here!" I pointed my finger at the door.

Kyou's eyes glowed red. "This room belongs to me now, so I think you should be leaving, weed."

"Stop calling me that!" I snarled, clenching my fists.

"So Sunohara Youhei would hit a girl. Wow, he's gotten to an all time low." Tomoya chuckled, slowly backing away from the two of us.

To my credit, I did not break my glare with Kyou. As we both stared each other down, Kyou suddenly clenched her hand into a fist. "I guess you'll need some more convincing." She sneered as she approached me.

To answer her taunt, I raised my own fists. "I was a top soccer player, so why should I be afraid of you? You're just a girl who catches guys off guard in order to get your way. Be gone with you, immoral villain!" I snarled back at her.

She answered me with a kick to my face, which I miraculously dodged. My victory in that move was short lived, however, for she smiled and followed up with a second kick to the side of my face.

I went flying. No, I am not kidding. I went flying and slammed headfirst into the wall of my dorm. As you can imagine, the natives started getting restless.

"What the hell is going on in there?!" A rugby player yelled.

"We're beating up Sunohara Youhei." Kyou answered.

"Oh, then keep on going. And get a beat started, that's the kind of music I'd like to hear." The rugby player answered.

"With pleasure." Kyou called back happily, cracking her knuckles.

I hastily got up, only to receive another punch to the nose, sending me falling down and getting a shot to the groin, causing me to fly. When I hit the ceiling, I fell down. During my fall, with the help of gravity, I landed on one of Kyou's uppercuts, sending me headed for the ceiling again. As always, this was a really, really bad day.

* * *

After an hour, I was twitching on the ground, and Kyou was wiping her face with a handkerchief she just happened to 'pick up,' that lousy thief.

"Whew, what a workout." She breathed deeply.

"He makes a great punching bag, right?" Tomoya chuckled.

Kyou smiled at him, and I continued to twitch.

"Well, I've got to get back." She started to head for the door.

"Let me go with you." He offered, and they left me curled up in my room, barely able to move.

* * *

"Misae-san, do you happen to have any Tums or Pepto-Bismol? My stomach feels funny." I told her when she opened her door.

Misae looked at me, and her eyes widened a little. "My God, could a single girl beat a boy so brutally? Forget the Tums, kid. You need some bandages, and some ice. Here, I'll get you some water to help you wash up." Misae spoke, getting ready to run past me to get said things.

"Thank you so much..." I panted, before suddenly collapsing in front of her.

* * *

I woke up in a hospital, where I saw a young girl running around. That girl seemed familiar.

"Fujibayashi?" I called, but realized that my throat was really hoarse.

"Sunohara-kun, so you finally woke up." Ryou came walking over to me.

"What... Happened?" I struggled to remember what had went on. All I could remember was that Kyou beat me nearly to death, again, and that I went over to Misae, who was going to get me some ice.

"Misae-san tells me that you fainted in front of her because of my sister's strikes... Sunohara-kun, you really should try to not bother her."

"She's the one who uses my room without my permission, and Okazaki takes advantage of her strength and my loneliness to stay in my room! Wait, forget that last line..." I didn't want to reveal everything to the sister of Kyou, or Kyou might extract that information from her and use it against me... That damn bitch!

Ryou smiled knowingly. "Maybe you should lock the door to your room whenever you go out, and you should also try to find other people to hang out with."

"I've tried that second part... Got any ideas?"

"Sunohara-kun, don't you think your laziness makes people disrespect and underestimate you? Don't you feel horrible because of that?"

"Eh..." I wasn't really sure how I should answer her, so I decided to change the subject. "Besides, are you a nurse or something...? Aren't you a little young to be tending patients?"

Ryou sighed. She wasn't going to get a straight answer from me, and I guess she must have been thinking that she'd still get bad marks for my lowering of the class average. "I'm an intern here at the hospital, and, yes, I do want to become a nurse someday." She replied.

I stared at her for a second. It was really ironic how Kyou's little sister was such a sweet girl, who's dream was to help people once she was able, while Kyou enjoyed abusing and torturing people as well as taking everything she could get. Seriously, wasn't Tomoya dating Ryou for a while? Then Kyou had to go in there, use some stupid drama, and lure Tomoya away...

* * *

I guess Tomoya would have been better off with Ryou after all. But, to give him credit, none of us knew that it would come to this... None of us knew how hopelessly incompatible those two were. I guess love really is blind, blind enough to let happiness and welfare get thrown aside in pursuit of it, but I guess I'll have to tell that story later...


	2. Old Wounds

Old Wounds

But I guess you really wanted to know, didn't you?

Well, it's hard, talking about something like this with a straight face. Not because it's funny, no, if I thought it was funny then I'd be as horrible as Kyou. No, they say that some men are tough enough to get over their foolish pride and cry, but I'm not going to cry over someone else's misfortune. Even then, I can't help but feel gloomy about my best friend. He never got over those wounds, and I guess Kyou just couldn't help him bandage them...

Anyways, it was such a happy wedding. Kyou didn't give a damn when Tomoya decided that I'd be the best man, and even now I wonder why I accepted it, but I did... I did, and Ryou was the Maid of Honor. As you can expect, it was a pretty big wedding. Kyou invited everyone she knew, even random people like Sakagami Tomoyo. I guess she wanted to rub it in everyone's faces that she was marrying Okazaki Tomoya. I don't know why anyone else would feel jealous towards her, since Tomoya and I were known to be the worst students in the school, but she wanted to make them feel jealous nonetheless.

Before the wedding everything seemed all well and good. Kyou and Tomoya were lovers. They spent a lot of time together, in and out of bed. They seemed like such a fitting couple. And I, well, I never got to see the inside of my dorm room for another two months. Despite Ryou's advice, Kyou kicked down the door once and forced me to beg Misae to get it fixed. Then she threatened to break my jaw if I ever locked them out again, and I knew that she'd do it, so I decided to scrap Ryou's wise council and let Kyou continue using my room with Tomoya.

Thankfully though, from the moment Kyou and Tomoya moved out of my room and over to his house to the day of their wedding, they generally let me be. It was really lonely, though, without Tomoya, and, well, despite all our little skirmishes I've always thought of Okazaki as a friend. But that Kyou, man, she practically stole my friend from me and stole a lover from Ryou. She stole my room for such a long time and stole many of my things just to make her self feel at home. What a bitch...

But I'll stop ranting about her. After all, to give her credit, she tried to be a good mother for Minoru, their son. There was a time when I'd laugh at the thought of Kyou being a decent parent, but she really tried to be one. I guess that goes to show how Tomoya tamed the beast.

With all jokes aside, when Minoru was born, Tomoya seemed to change. He started clinging onto Kyou like mad, as though he was afraid that she'd shatter into a million pieces in a heartbeat. He started ordering her not to do this or that, for fear that she'd get hurt otherwise. It even got to the point where he wouldn't let her drive a car.

The shocking part is that Kyou swallowed most of these. She acted as though everything was fine. She felt that he might need some time to adjust to being a father, since his own father was so inept at providing the emotional support Tomoya needed. She was a good wife, but I guess she wasn't enough for Tomoya. The crazier he got, the more worried and uneasy Kyou got, and eventually Tomoya left the house for an entire week, and Kyou was starting to feel devastated and worried sick.

How do I know all this? Well, let's just say that I got a very unexpected phone call one day, after years of having avoided Tomoya and Kyou.

"_Youhei, I'm sorry, but I need your help..."_

"_The Great Kyou Fujibayashi wants to turn her head to the weed and ask it for it's aid. What's the world coming to?"_

_For a second, Kyou was silent. I guess she was trying to figure out what just happened. I used a sarcastic, smartass comment to counter her plea for help, and she was probably realizing that I wasn't the same spineless idiot I once was._

"_Youhei, please... You're the only person who can help me now."_

"_But why me, of all people? You have so many friends, right? Aren't I just the weed? Shouldn't you let me continue growing merrily in the lawn?"_

"_I... Those friends mean little, Youhei. They're not really friends. I know we've been on pretty bad terms since the beginning of high school, but I hope you can forgive me. Something terrible's happened and you're the only person I trust to help me take care of it."_

_She sounded so desperate, so worried and forlorn. For a second, I decided to be a man and at least let her explain herself, while showing that I wasn't a complete idiot either._

"_Did something happen with Tomoya?" I asked, trying to put some concern in my voice._

_Kyou froze for a second. I guess I finally hit the bullseye._

"_Yes..." She mumbled, and I could tell that the fiery, mighty Kyou I once knew had done a 180 degree turn. Now, she was a worried, uncertain, hesitant Kyou, and I wouldn't be a man if I continued to be cruel to her._

"_Let's hear it..."_

* * *

It wasn't pretty, not at all. After hearing what had happened to Okazaki, I began to wonder how all of this could have happened. There was no reason for Tomoya to be so extreme. He had Kyou trying to support him every step of the way. She would do whatever it took to be a good mother for their son. Why would Tomoya break down as a father? Did he feel like he couldn't take the heat, that he just wasn't meant to be a parent? If so, why did he even bed Kyou and not make her have an abortion in the first place? Or why didn't he just try to get the kid to an adoption center? Why did he choose to stay a father?... Nothing made sense... (1.)

Kyou and I remained silent for a few minutes. I could hear her breathing rapidly, as if she had just seen a grizzly bear and had narrowly escaped it's claws. I sighed. "Say, Kyou, these kinds of things aren't easy to discuss over the phone, right?"

"Right..." She mumbled again.

"Tell you what, I'm free next Tuesday afternoon. You're a kindergarten teacher, right? Won't you be off by then?"

"Well... You're right, a kindergarten isn't a daycare. I'll call you by Friday if I am able to meet you then."

"Ok, then. I guess I'll be seeing you..."

"Yeah... Thanks, Youhei." And, just like that, she hung up. I guess she didn't change that much after all.

* * *

That Tuesday Kyou and I were in a café, and with a cup of coffee in each of our hands, we thought up a plan to save Tomoya and Minoru, by all means necessary.

Well, what can I say? I've always tried to be a nice guy, after all.

"So anyway, Tomoya's always been one to neglect his duties, right? Why don't you lure him, telling him that there's great beer at some bar, and that you'll pay? At the same time I'll get Minoru ready, and you'll lure him into an alley, where I'll corner him and use Minoru to make him realize that he's got to be responsible!" Kyou put her hand into a fist, slamming the table with her elbow and nearly tipping over both cups of coffee.

Seriously, that girl was quickly making a full recovery... I guess Kyou just can't be broken for long.

"Um, first off that sounds like you want a restraining order from him..."

"Are you an idiot? We're married, and he's not going to try to file a restraining order on his wife, right?"

"Has it ever occurred to you why he wandered off in the first place, Kyou?..." I narrowed my eyes. If I had to be a jerk to get her to think straight, then so be it...

At that point Kyou froze again. Yeah, vulnerable she truly was, but true to herself she definitely was not. "He's... He's just having some doubts about what to do in life, that's all!" Kyou stammered angrily. "Why are you bringing these kinds of things up?! They're not important if we already have a good plan to get him to become a good father!"

"That's a lie, Kyou, and you know it. Your plan isn't going to work at all unless we can truly figure out why Tomoya left in the first place. Smacking some sense into him is useless. You used to do that to both him and me back in High School, and did that get either of us anywhere?"

Kyou was honestly speechless. "... I guess you're right."

With such a quick retreat, she cut me off guard. Maybe Kyou was cracked in more ways then I thought... I guess her time with Tomoya changed her for better and worse.

"So... Anyway, those restraints Tomoya put on you... It seems like he broke down long before you even felt that something was wrong. Did he start bothering you before Minoru was born, or...?"

"He started making those kinds of demands before we had our child..."

"Then Minoru probably isn't the only reason why Tomoya's like this. I thought it would be because Tomoya felt like he couldn't be a good dad after thinking about his past... Or because his father was a miserable failure at being a good role model, so he wouldn't be able to make up for it... Hmn..." I stroked my chin while Kyou just stared at me. She looked more and more hopeless each passing minute. Had she turned even more bipolar after all this?

Kyou just stared at me the entire time, as if she expected me to have the answer. I stared back at her in kind, but my mind was honestly blank. Tomoya having a mental breakdown was hardly believable, so I really didn't know what to say to her.

* * *

1. People like to say that Sunohara Youhei is an idiot. I disagree. When he wants to be serious and wise, he sure can be. For example, in the anime for the summer season episode, Youhei gave Tomoya some decent advice that one could hardly think he'd be able to give, since he's single, after all.


	3. Desperate Moves

Desperate Moves

That day at the café left me even more confused. If we couldn't understand why Tomoya acted the way he did, then we couldn't help him... But how did he expect us to understand him in the first place? Why was Kyou so confident in the fact that I'd be able to help?

Kyou, as expected, had to rush back to the kindergarten. Apparently she had unfinished business she had set aside in order to talk to me. So, we went our separate ways, and I watched her glide off on her scooter.

With a sigh, I decided to get myself a drink. I hardly got drunk anymore, for I'd heard of what happened when I did, but headaches like these couldn't be cured by something weak like water. I needed a cold beer, and I knew just where to get it.

But as I entered my favorite bar, I spotted a familiar face...

* * *

Tomoya was slouched over on one of the stools. His face... was hardly recognizable... And those rags, were they once his working clothes?

"What the hell happened here?..." I mumbled aloud. For a second, I froze, fearing that Tomoya might have heard me, but when I saw him calmly sip his beer keg, I knew that he wasn't paying attention. With a relieved sigh, I walked over and sat down next to him.

"Hey, man." I offered a greeting, curious as to how he'd respond.

He turned a groggy eye in my direction. "Oh... Sunohara..." He murmured almost incoherently.

I was honestly shocked. I remembered what he told me one day, when we were both in my room, and before Tomoya got together with Kyou. He told me how he hated his father's cold attitude; how he felt that his father treated him like a stranger. But, here, Tomoya just mumbled my name as if I was some passing acquaintance he happened to spot. To be honest, it was troubling... Was Tomoya becoming just like his father, and would Kyou and Minoru have to deal with such a broken man?

I wanted to call Kyou, and tell her that I found him, but when my hand reached for my cell, I stopped it. No, she wouldn't be able to breathe if she saw what was happening to him... It was time for me to take action, without interference from her.

"Here..." I offered my hand. "You look wasted, man. Let's get out of here."

Tomoya just smiled. "It's been a long time, Sunohara."

I nodded grimly. "Sure, it has. Now, c'mon, let's get out of here."

* * *

When we entered my apartment, Tomoya stepped a few steps forward, and then collapsed face first on my couch.

I was speechless. Not long ago, Tomoya would be laughing at the fact that my apartment was really shabby, but here he was too drunk to even realize where he was, I bet.

With a sigh, I decided to call it a day. Locking my door, I went to take a shower and go to bed. At least Tomoya wouldn't be out rotting in the streets... Even if my couch had to pay for it.

* * *

The next morning, when I walked into the kitchen, Tomoya looked clueless as he sat on a chair at the dining table. He took one look at me, and blinked. "Sunohara?"

"That's me..." I replied with a frown.

"Hey, how long has it been?" He smiled, but his eyes still looked clueless. But that smile soon faded, and with narrowed eyes he asked me: "And how the hell did I wind up in your place?"

I let out a sigh. "You were dead drunk in a bar, so I dragged you back here. At least indoors you won't catch a cold or rot in the streets."

Tomoya glanced at his own filthy clothing, and at my clean pajamas, and smirked. "I guess the tables turned on us, huh? I'm a mess while you look halfway decent."

"Yeah, thanks." I sighed.

"But, Sunohara, thanks for helping me out. Now do you need money or something?" Tomoya smirked.

I narrowed my eyes. "Take a good look in the mirror, Okazaki, and then come talk to me like that." (1.)

For a second Tomoya froze. I think I hit the nail dead on. He slowly staggered out of his seat. "Youhei... What the hell...?"

"Look at you." I replied, not letting him defend what pride he shouldn't be having. "Just look at you, man. Is this what Kyou married? Is this the person who I spent all my time with back in High School, the same guy who shared the bad and good times with me? Are you Okazaki Tomoya, or have you become the piece of trash you always said you might become?! I thought our proud recitals that we would come out as useless idiots were jokes, Tomoya. Ever since I became what I am today, a businessman who's made enough money to buy his own apartment, despite having had the worst grades in high school, I've looked back at those times and just laughed while thinking about them. I had no idea that you were serious, that you truly wanted to be a piece of trash. But if that's what you want, well, man, that's what you've become. You're not even an electrician anymore... Now you're no better than a drunk beggar who prowls the streets at night. I'll bet that if you stayed an electrician you'd tell Minoru to stay far away from the kind of person you are now."

Tomoya stared at me with an open mouth. He couldn't even speak, but I saw that look of shock in his eyes. Then, suddenly, he marched to the door and threw it open. Before I could stop him, he bolted towards the stairs and flew down them. By the time I locked the door and reached the stairs, he was already gone. That day was a Wednesday, and Kyou would obviously be at work. But, this was a call I had to make, so I called her...

* * *

1. I think I've made Youhei a bit too serious here, but I think it makes sense due to how ruined Tomoya is now. Remember in the anime where Youhei yelled at Nagisa for being so soft-hearted and spineless? Well, now he does the same to Tomoya, who's become spineless and fatally irresponsible. Okazaki deserves a beatdown, through words or fists. Thankfully Youhei chose the first of the two.


	4. Plight

Plight

Kyou was silent.

And so was I.

I could hear the scrambling footsteps and chatter of kids as they were leaving school for home. If I was in a better mood, I'd be laughing with Kyou about those kids, and how we weren't that different than they were when we were their age.

But for me to laugh after just having told her what happened to her husband would probably make me the most thoughtless bastard man has ever known.

I'm sure she didn't mean what she said right afterwards.

"_Don't you ever call me again!"_

And I honestly didn't mean what I said after that.

"_Do you think I wanted to help you in the first place, you thankless witch? I did all of this for Tomoya, and look, now he's just some spineless piece of trash. Maybe he became this way __**because**_ _you married him. Maybe I was right all along."_

I'm surprised she didn't hang up before I started speaking, or even after. I could hear her gasp at the end of my speech, and she stayed silent. So, I decided to end this mutual suffering for us both and hang up right then and there.

* * *

I spent that evening drunk, again, but this time the barkeep made sure that nothing happened to me. I was a pretty frequent customer, after all, and I'm sure he didn't want anything particularly bad to happen to me.

I came back home around 4AM. I didn't want to think about all this anymore. If I made one wrong step, I could have been like Tomoya. None of this made sense, but, honestly, at that point I really didn't care anymore. Sleep was the most important thing for me then.

* * *

Weeks passed, and I was getting exhausted from the daily grind my job gave me. When I got back home, I found a message on my answering machine. I typically got spam calls from telemarketers or the occasional note from work, but few people really gave enough of a care to call me. Few people, that is, except for Kyou.

"_Youhei... Are you there? Or maybe you really don't want to talk to me. In any case, I'm sorry, Youhei... I... I just couldn't believe what you told me back then. It didn't seem possible, the man you described to me wasn't Tomoya at all. I honestly thought you were lying._

"_But then I saw him, Youhei, as I left the supermarket the next evening. I saw him dragging himself across the sidewalk, and though he didn't even glance at me I could tell that it was him with one glance. I couldn't believe what I saw, and I honestly thought that my eyes were playing tricks on me, but it was him all right, and he didn't even bother looking around and seeing or responding to me._

"_You're... You've been single. You aren't a father yet. You don't know what it's like to see the one you love, the other parent of your child walk along like that, like a completely destroyed person. He... That man wasn't Tomoya. That man was some dirty hobo on the sidewalk, and yet he looked so much like Minoru... I just cried right then and there._

"_I... You... Thank you, Youhei. There are few people who would be willing to sit down with the people who once tortured them and be willing to help them in their toughest moments. In a way, that shows what kind of person you are. You've got honor, and guts, even if you're also a hopeless idiot half of the time._

"_Our job is far from finished, Youhei... You have the chance to help me fix Tomoya's broken family. Are you willing to be a man and take this responsibility, or will you let some words released in anger prevent you from doing what's right? I'll let you decide."_

With that, the message clicked and I was left with silence.

As I pressed the delete button on my answering machine, I picked up the phone. Kyou was right, I couldn't let our little argument stop me from helping my best friend. Kyou wanted us to make up so that we could help Tomoya, and so did I.

* * *

And, once again, we found ourselves in that same café, sitting face to face.

Kyou was deep in thought, while I, with my mind blank, could only stare at her.

"Maybe we could... No, he wouldn't react to that..." Kyou mumbled, cutting her suggestion before it could be expressed.

I shook my head. "What can we do?"

Kyou stared at me, and I didn't want to hear what she was going to say next, so I decided to strike first.

"I don't think your idiot husband will react to anything, except if we ram the truth right into his face."

"What do you mean by that?"

"We'll have to force him to see how Minoru can't do well without his father... Tomoya has to be a man for once and accept the fact that yes, he is a father, and that if he keeps this up he will be even worse than his own dad. Tomoya is trying to hide from reality, trying to keep himself alone in order to do whatever he wants, even though he has a kid and has so many responsibilities to fulfill..."

Kyou just stared at me. I just questioned her husband's manliness and, instead of giving me a kick to the head, she was actually considering my words.

But, for some unexplainable reason, I felt that even this plan would fail... Something didn't seem so easy to solve, but even with those doubts we had to do whatever we could. No one could blame us for failing, just for not trying. With that point of view in mind, we began our plan of attack.

* * *

So, readers, I have watched the Tomoyo OVA, and I can only say this: Though Nagisa is the best match for Tomoya, I don't think anyone can deny, after seeing both this episode and/or playing (or in my case, reading) the game, that Tomoyo is another soulmate... Of course, Tomoyo After continues their love, but ends it in a way that makes me want to strangle its creator. Well, since you are most likely members of the Kyou camp, readers, let me say that I like Kyou and Youhei as a couple more than Kyou and Tomoya. It's a personal preference, of course.


	5. Showdown

Showdown

"Tomoya..." I called out to him, hoping that he'd hear me.

The man in rags just staggered forward, persistent in his march, and unwavering in his idiocy.

I could only stand there, asking myself: "Tomoya, what the hell happened to you? Everyone called me the idiot, thinking that I would fail miserably in life, but we all liked you. We all just hung around you all the time, but now it's come to this. You break your wife's heart, you abandon your son, and you just ignore your best friend no matter how hard we try to save you from this... Why?..."

* * *

I found myself walking over to Kyou as she wandered these slums, looking for Tomoya. She saw me, and I'm sure she knew exactly what was going on.

"So he's that hopeless, huh?" She asked.

"Yeah..." I scratched the back of my head. What could I say to comfort her? Would anything work?

She sighed. "What the hell happened to him?" Her hair swayed to the side as she turned her head. I saw her face morphed by worry, and I wondered how life could be so unfair... For a girl to worry about him so much...

I thought to myself: Damn, Okazaki, how could you do this to the woman who loves you? If Kyou was _my_ wife, the main thing she'd have to worry about is me screwing up, but, otherwise, I'd always be there for her... She would never have to go through something like this...

Kyou just turned back to me, the guy who served as the best man for her wedding, and shrugged her shoulders. "Honestly, I don't know what we can do anymore..." She said.

I studied the look on her face. "You... You couldn't have... Kyou, don't give up on him!"

"Then..." She shook, her face burning red and her fists hardening like rocks. "Then what the hell should I do?!" She yelled desperately.

I didn't know what else to say, so I decided to blurt out whatever would work. "We're going to have to corner him."

Kyou turned to me with a confused look on her face.

"And what do you mean by that?" She demanded.

I stared at her, giving her the most annoyed face possible. "You said once that you wanted to corner him in an alley, with Minoru in your arms, and thus by making him see his son and his wife force him to face reality... What's making you back down now?"

"I... Well... You really think it'll work, Youhei?"

To be honest, I didn't know what to say. To say "yeah, I'm sure it would work" would be a dead lie, but to say no would just slap me in the face. So, I decided to wing it. "When at first you don't succeed, try try again, right? No one can say that we're not trying."

She stared at me for a second, with that doubtful face she used to use on me back in school whenever I made a questionable comment or suggestion. After a few moments, she sighed. "You're right. It's my duty to both Tomoya and Minoru to try until I die, so let's go with your plan."

* * *

Tomoya walked forward, and after a few moments, he finally spotted me walking right towards him.

He seemed shocked when he saw me, and quickly turned around and started walking back.

But, as planned, Kyou was closing in on him from behind, with Minoru, and once Tomoya saw them both he bolted to the right, forcing Kyou to chase him while I tried to cut him off.

I continued to run, and finally when Tomoya appeared from the side of some old, broken-down building, I confronted him, and as I suspected, he ran...

Right into an alley, with a huge wall at the end. We had him cornered, and from my back Kyou started walking towards him with Minoru in her arms.

Tomoya backed away, towards the wall, and Kyou asked him. "Tomoya, what... What happened to you?" I saw tears start flowing from her eyes, and, putting down Minoru, she ran forward to embrace him.

"Don't touch me... Don't look at me!" I heard him yell out, pushing Kyou back with his arm.

What the hell happened to you, Okazaki? I thought to myself.

And, suddenly, a bright light began to fill my vision. A bunch of glowing spheres started flying from every which way towards Tomoya. One of these spheres flew awfully close to me, and, being curious, I touched it with my hand...

* * *

_I found myself in front of a large business complex. Looking up, I saw that I was standing at the door of an insurance company._

_Suddenly, the glass door in front of me flew open, and a kid with purple hair and eyes stepped out. This boy spotted me right away, and ran towards me. "Dad!" He yelled. "You're late!"_

"_Huh?" I blinked. I didn't have any kids... It wasn't possible... I was still a virgin, for crying out loud!_

_The kid dragged me deeper into the building, all the way until we reached a rather large waiting room._

_Sitting on one of the chairs was Kyou, with a young woman beside her. That other girl had dark grey hair... The scary part was that her hair was exactly like mine._

"_Youhei! What took you so long?!" Kyou snarled as she stood up from her seat._

"_Kyou?!" I was stunned. What was going on, anyway?_

_The girl who was sitting next to Kyou sighed, giving her long grey hair a quick fling. "What an idiot... Tadao, how long did you have to wait out there?"_

"_Forty-five minutes, at least... Dad, do you have any idea how late you are?!" The boy named Tadao growled at me._

_Kyou turned to Tadao, then back at me, and sighed. "Some father figure you are. Youhei, I told you to be here at 3 to pick us up, and instead you make us wait 'till it's 4:15... What were you thinking?"_

_I blinked again. "Um... Kyou?"_

_Kyou glared at me, but since she noticed my confused expression, she sighed and asked: "What?"_

"_What did we agree on in the first place?... And... And why are those two kids calling me "dad" and all that?"_

_Kyou stared at me with a horrified expression. She seemed to sway from side to side, as though her heart was starting to get weak. "D... Don't scare me like that, Youhei... It's not funny..." She chuckled worriedly._

"_Kyou? I'm not married, and I never had any kids. What's going on here?..."_

_Both Tadao and that other girl stared at me in shock. The other girl's face also began to get teary, and Tadao looked frantic. Tears started to fall from Kyou's eyes as she stepped forward and hugged me. "Youhei... No... Why?..." I heard her sob into my neck._

_It was at this moment that the door to this waiting room flew open, and a second me stepped in._

"_Kyou! Sorry I was late, but..."_

_Kyou's eyes shot open, and she quickly pushed me off of her. Turning to the other me, she gasped. "Youhei? Youhei, do you love me?"_

"_Of... Of course, Kyou... You might be a pain, and you might terrorize me and Tadao often, but you're the girl I chose to stand beside forever... Did you even need to ask that?" Now it was the other me's turn to be confused._

"_Youhei..." Now Kyou had some weird dramatic face as she ran forward and grabbed the other me, pulling him into a bear hug. "Youhei... Thank you..."_

"_Kyou..." The other me blushed._

_But she suddenly pushed the other me off and gave him a deadly punch to the face._

"_Gah!"_

"_And that's for making me wait for more than an hour!"_

"_Kyou, what did you expect me to do? Traffic was horrible!"_

"_Then you should have called!"_

"_And get into an accident? Are you crazy?!"_

"_Besides, traffic can't be **that** horrible! It isn't possible!"_

"_Oh, then maybe we should switch vehicles. Next time I'll take the scooter, and you'll take the car, and then you'll see how horrible traffic can be!"_

_Kyou and the other me continued to snarl, and after a few moments the other me pointed to me and asked: "And, um, what's going on here?"_

_Kyou laughed. "Youhei, it seems we have a visitor from a parallel universe."_

_The other me blinked for a second, then began to nod his head. "Oh..." He smirked._

"_Huh?" I blinked._

"_Let's just say that you saw a huge, blinding light before seeing Tadao, right?" Kyou asked me._

"_Um, yeah..."_

"_Right. It happened to me once, and Youhei too."_ (1.)

"_Really..."_

"_Really. So, how exactly did you get here? How's Tomoya? In your universe, I mean."_

"_Um... I touched some glowing sphere to get here. As for Tomoya, um, where I came from he married you, Kyou, and right now there are some major relationship problems going on. Let's just say that Tomoya had a mental breakdown..."_

_Kyou was honestly surprised. "Wow... That's... I never thought that would happen... Youhei, thanks for making my life pretty easy, other than making sure you don't become an idiot."_

_The other me gave out a sarcastic laugh. "Yeah, thanks..." But he looked concerned too._

"_Still... What could possibly have happened? I used to like Tomoya back then, so if she got together with him, wouldn't she be happy? You know, for us Tomoya married Tomoyo and now the two are quite a happy couple..." Kyou spoke._

"_I... I guess happiness can't be predicted that easily..." I sighed._

_Kyou cocked her head to the side, and rested it against the other me's shoulder. "I knew I made the right choice..." She smiled at the other me, who smiled back._

"_So what do you plan to do?" The other me asked._

"_Yeah... You're still single, right? You must be quite lonely." Kyou looked at me with concern._

"_I'll be fine." I smirked. "I'm glad you're happy here, though, Kyou... To think that we're that great as a couple!..." I added a laugh, and Kyou stared at me strangely while grabbing onto her husband._

_At that moment, I started to feel a tug on my back. "Wait... What's going on?" I asked._

"_You're starting to fade... Take care, Youhei! I hope you'll find someone who will love you as much as, well, as much as me, I guess..." Kyou blushed and waved, along with the other me._

* * *

The light began to dim as it began to cover Tomoya, and I could see that Kyou was just as shocked as I was.

I saw her turn towards me, and she mumbled. "So that's how it would have turned out..."

I blinked. Did she just see a similar situation that I just did?

We both turned back to Tomoya, where a bunch of these glowing spheres were around him... He seemed bathed in that light, but instead of showing a peaceful expression, or even one of distress, his eyes were something else... They weren't the eyes of a troubled or a happy person, no, they were the eyes of a madman.

The light turned ridiculously bright, bright enough to blind me, and as I covered Minoru's eyes and turned away, I heard the shattering of glass, and suddenly everything went a lot darker. Not even a millisecond afterwards, I heard something horrible..

There was a scream: "NO!"

And a gunshot...

And I kept my eyes closed, unwilling to open them...

* * *

1. This is a reference to my earlier fic "Meaningful Ways to Pass the Time." Basically, in that fic Kyou and Youhei get married and have two kids, a daughter named Hatsumi and a son named Tadao. On their wedding anniversary, Kyou and later Youhei had a short link to a parallel universe, but meet a much younger Kyou (still in senior year of high school, that is, instead of being forty with two kids). That younger Kyou tells both Kyou and Youhei that she's pursuing Tomoya, and both Kyou and Youhei tell her to follow her heart, but to consider other options, since Kyou married Youhei in this universe and found happiness with him.


	6. Spring

Spring

**(Warning: There is some intense language during Tomoya's monologue. If you are bothered by such language, then proceed in the italicized text with caution.)**

Spring... I used to hate this season because it was the series of months right before summer, and even though the dreadful cold of winter had passed, I still had to stay in school...

But that's probably a very childish view. Spring represents a brand new start, a chance for everything we did during the last year to be redone...

And so, that spring, I guess I saw that happen firsthand.

* * *

The bullet flew through Kyou's shoulder, and she went down.

I kept my hands over Minoru's eyes, and my arms tried to cover his ears, but that kid was still bawling.

Who could blame him, though? His dad just shot his mom in the shoulder, and that miserable excuse for a man ran off like the spineless fool he became.

I rushed forward and held Kyou's uninjured shoulder, shaking her a little, though it was probably a bad idea. "Kyou! Hang in there!" I quickly used my free hand to call an ambulance...

* * *

The cops found Tomoya eventually, and though Kyou didn't press any charges, we heard him explain himself...

Apparently, it goes something like this:

_My father... Was a failure._

_I'd come home every day just to see his drunk face smile at me, as though I was a stranger, and I couldn't stand him..._

_My mother died before I could remember her... You don't understand, do you officer? You don't understand what it's like to remember a mother's touch but to forget her face..._

_So, because of this, I practically had no mother, and my father was practically a stranger, so I just winged through life 'till I entered some bigshot high school._

_I have no idea how I got in, but after I did this old man named Komura helped me find a friend, Sunohara Youhei, who I hung out with. Youhei made me feel better about myself, because no matter how pathetic I'd be, he'd be even more so. Sometimes I pitied him, other times I helped bully him, and generally it felt good comparing myself to him._

_Then, along the way I met a girl... Fujibayashi Kyou. She was violent, yes, but cute, in a way. For a while I didn't know she liked me until much later, and even then it involved her hooking me up with her little sister and having all of us go crazy over our feelings for each other. Her sis got over me, though, and I got Kyou as a reward for hanging in there._

* * *

_Kyou and I got married, and we had a kid..._

_But at that time I knew that Sunohara found a job, and I heard from some people that he was making a lot of money... More money than me, and I was an electrician for crying out loud!_

_But being an electrician and Kyou being a kindergarten teacher wasn't enough to keep us happy. Kyou liked a lot of expensive gadgets and stuff... Way back when she used to play a lot of computer games and visual novels, thinking that no one knew, but we could all tell from talking to her every now and then._

_She kinda stayed a gamer, though more sparingly, but even a casual gamer needs better equipment, and needs to keep up with the tech of the times, and that basically wiped out my salary as a novice electrician. It was Kyou's salary that got us enough for food, to pay the rent, to pay for our car, hell, I even forced Kyou not to drive a car in order to not have to make payments for another one. She used her old scooter instead, and even then gas for both that thing and my car were killers..._

_Caring for a kid took a lot of work, too. Do you know how much money it takes to replace diapers again and again, along with feeding the damn thing? You don't, do you officer? You don't know what it's like living on the edge, having to feed a bunch of mouths with a puny salary! _

_I started drinking, drinking 'cuz I wanted to forget all of this... And, little by little, I realized that I was my dad... I became my father. I became the man I hated. So, I figured, maybe it was best for me to destroy the car, to leave Kyou and Minoru, so that they wouldn't have to deal with me: a failure, a worthless man, a drunkard, and a loser..._

* * *

_So, officer, I lived on the streets after trashing that fucking car. I destroyed that damn thing and all the payments that went with it. I made so little money, anyway, and Kyou was doing well in her job. She always got awards for being the best teacher in the district, and I was betting on the fact that she'd make money and be able to live on her own, without having to worry about it..._

_Then, then that Sunohara found me at some bar. At least, that's what he told me when I woke up the next morning at his place. I was surprised, here he was, the worst student in our entire high school and the idiot who everyone hated. Yet, instead of being some homeless idiot bum on the street, Youhei Sunohara was a ridiculously successful businessman making a lot more money than Kyou and I did combined._

_I laughed, thinking that it was so ironic that Youhei was doing so well while Kyou and I lived in the dumps, but Youhei got pissed when I laughed. He told me to look in the mirror and see myself, and then talk to him later... That bastard..._

_I looked in that mirror, all right. I looked in the mirror and I saw my father..._

_And I got out of there as fast as I could..._

* * *

_You know, officer, I doubt there are people in this world who understand how resourceful you have to be in order to live in the streets. You have to find a bridge, or an abandoned shack, something for shelter each day. You have to find food, whether it comes from the trash or from someone else's plate. It's not easy, living on the streets, but I pulled it off. I didn't have to ask for welfare or nothing like that. I wonder if you've seen or heard of anyone else who can say that._

_So, yeah, I lived just fine, alright. Just fine until I heard a girl cry my name, and I was, as you can imagine, shocked that Kyou would find me like this. But, by the time I turned around, she was running the other way. And it was at that moment when I realized how hopelessly screwed I was._

* * *

_You know, I met this one guy when we were both hunting for food in a dumpster. He carried an old pistol with him, something that looked like it would rust itself useless soon. He told me that he was considering whether he should use it on himself, as he bought only a single cartridge for the thing and he used to use it as a hunting device, as he used to hunt for a hobby until some fire hit his house and his insurance company practically folded in on itself and screwed him over._

_I told him to keep digging for food, and we both found enough to our liking that day. I hung out with him for a while, when one day he handed me the gun, and told me how he felt that it would probably be very painful and stupid if he failed to kill himself with one shot._

_So, as we wandered the outskirts of the city together, he suddenly ran into the middle of traffic for a highway leading out of the city... He ran right in front of a huge truck, and, as you can expect, he got cut into quite a few pieces. I watched the whole thing, and as the paramedics were cleaning everything up, I left that place. No one gave a damn about a hobbo, and no one cared to ask the witness, that hobo's "compatriot," if you will, who that hobbo was. He was just another dead body to them, to be honest with you. That's why I don't trust those rich bastards for shit._

* * *

_I carried his gun, and thought about him often. Here was a guy who killed himself because his life was so horrible. To be honest, my life wasn't that much better than his. Why did I still hang around? It wasn't like Kyou or Minoru needed me around, anyway._

_As I walked along, thinking about all this, Sunohara suddenly closed in on me. By the time I spotted him, he had almost reached me, and thus I decided to escape from him. Why did I have to let myself get humiliated by that idiot, anyway?_

_But then, when I tried to escape him, Kyou suddenly appeared, and I found myself running from both of them... I got myself trapped in an alley, and Kyou slowly approached me._

_I knew what I had become. I was my dad. I was the man I hated, just younger than he was... Kyou tried to embrace me, but I couldn't accept it... I'd become shit, and she shouldn't have to touch shit, right?_

_Then, before I knew it, I saw bright lights. They came from everywhere, like out of some bad Sci-fi movie, except that I wasn't dreaming. _

_I saw so many images..._

_One was of Tomoyo and me, and together we were walking under a row of cherry trees._

_Another was of me and some girl with blue hair. She wore two hairpins that looked like pink balls... And we were kissing._

_A third was me and Ryou, and we were both smiling..._

_And the last... I saw me and that girl from a while back... She held a little girl in her arms, and she gave me this big smile... I guess she found something fun to do in the end..._

_And all these memories, from times I didn't remember at all, and in a bunch of different places started appearing before my eyes. I saw Sunohara in a trance, too, and Kyou looked like she had totally snapped out of it, as though she was sleepwalking._

_I remember wondering what the hell was going on... What were these memories? Were they examples of better lives I could have had? And why would they show up now?_

_I saw Sunohara get back to normal first, and another ball of light flew from him towards her. Kyou had a couple of lights circling her, but soon they dimmed and she quickly went back to approaching me._ (1.)

* * *

_The light around me started to glow brighter, and those memories, memories I never experienced before, started to burn brighter in my head. I couldn't take it anymore! Why were they showing up? Were they God's taunts, telling me how absolutely useless I was as a husband? Were they a curse declaring that I failed in my search for happiness with Kyou? Was that it?!_

_I couldn't stand seeing those damned happy faces... Those fake smiles, those laughs, those looks of longing from each of those girls... No, this had to end now._

_At that moment, I heard the shattering of glass. It was over. The light was gone... Those memories were over, but then I found myself overwhelmed with grief. Why was I still alive? Wasn't I a failure? I could have made Kyou happy like I did for those girls, but I failed miserably... I failed as a father... I failed as a husband... I failed as a man._

_That old friend was right in giving me that gun. I pulled it out, and aimed for my chin..._

_Then Kyou leapt forward and grabbed my arm... The gun was yanked out of position._

_BAM!_

_Towards her shoulder... And I saw the bullet burst through, and the blood started to flow down the front and back of her shoulder blade..._

_I gasped... What had I done? I shot Kyou..._

_And as she collapsed, I ran once again... How could I bear looking at her? How could I bear looking at that other idiot now? Now... Now I truly was a failure... A criminal who failed, no less! I could no longer hope to walk along in this world... Now, now I was worth no more than dirt..._

_So, officer, I don't give a fuck. Arrest me if you will, throw me in a jail and hand me a belt, if you'd please. I have nothing to live for, any longer. Kyou might forgive me, and she might say that I have a son to raise, but please, give me a break. How can someone like me raise Minoru anyway? The kid's better off with Sunohara Youhei as his surrogate father. Maybe Kyou will be happier with that fool. At least he's rich and loyal as hell..._

* * *

The cops didn't know what to do with him after that. Since Kyou insisted that no charges be filed against Tomoya, they let him go, and watched him walk off into the night. I don't know what the hell he plans to do with his life, or if he's already dead... But, if you ask me, Okazaki Tomoya died long ago. That shell is not my old friend, no, that shell is truly a piece of trash.

Kyou, well, she's moved on, I guess. She and Minoru have moved in to an actual apartment, since they could barely afford that house anyway. We live only about two blocks away from each other, and I visit her often. Kyou's thanked me more than enough for what I tried to do, but I honestly didn't do anything, other than help get somebody to get that bullet out of her shoulder, and help give her support at a time when it looked like she really needed it.

That Kyou, seriously, she can look so tough, but I think she's pretty broken at the moment. But, what can I say? Every time I try to comfort her, she'll calmly wave me off with a fake smile. Okazaki Tomoya, or the shell that he's become, you have no idea what the hell you've done...

Or maybe he does. Maybe that, that thing does know what it did to Kyou. But maybe it no longer cares, because it's too broken to care. So, is this fate? Was I forced to watch two people I've known for so long break down like this? Man... Though it's quite lonely, I guess it's good to be single. That way I won't have to worry about this kind of crap.

_Fin_

* * *

1. If you've played the Visual Novel, then I'll say this: The first light (the one that triggered that 'flashback' ish event from the last chapter), was Sunohara Youhei's light, retrieved by Fujibayashi Kyou... Considering Youhei's longtime loneliness, I don't think I need to explain why that light exists.

* * *

Author's note: Depressing ending, I know, but I intended for that to be this way. Dear readers, if Chapter three didn't warn you enough of what would happen in the end, then I guess you were kind enough to stick around till you found this ending.

Kyou fans, please don't hate me for this, but I think that the problem of a Kyou/Tomoya relationship is not Kyou, by any means, but Tomoya. His emotional trama is something even Tomoyo couldn't cure, though she was able to help him mask it and hide it well. Only Nagisa, it seems, has the power to "fix" Tomoya. Only Nagisa can force Tomoya to become a man. And, for that, I think she's the best match, though I still am a Tomoyo fan to the bitter end.

Thanks for reading, and see you soon!


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